Snare drums, toms, bass drums, timbales, shell-less drums, and other like acoustic drums typically include a drum shell (or other rigid support ring) with a drumhead stretched over one or both open ends of the shell, the drumhead(s) bearing against a shaped edge, or “bearing edge”, on the end(s) of the shell. The tension in such drumheads is a key factor affecting the musical pitch and timbre of such acoustic drums, whether used individually or as part of a drum set. For acoustic drums having both a “top” (“batter”) head and a “bottom” (“resonator”) head, the drum's timbre is also affected by the relationship between the overall tension of the resonator head and the overall tension of the batter head. Consequently, most acoustic drums include a mechanism to adjust tension of each drumhead so that a desired musical pitch and/or timbre may be achieved.
Additionally, desirable drum timbres are often facilitated when the tension in a drumhead is applied uniformly around its periphery. However, geometric imperfections inevitably exist or arise in the drumhead, hoop, and/or bearing edge of the drum shell. Consequently, multiple adjustment points are typically required to vary the drumhead tension while maintaining uniform tension in the drumhead around its periphery.
To that end, typical acoustic drums engage the outer periphery of the drumhead (the rigid part of the drumhead that is larger in diameter than the shell) with a rigid hoop configured with multiple, evenly-spaced attachment features around it outer periphery. Special threaded fasteners, or “tension rods”, are assembled through the attachment features of the hoop and threaded into multiple, evenly-spaced lugs rigidly attached to the outer periphery of the shell. By applying a tightening torque to all of the tension rods, the hoop variably forces the outer periphery of the drumhead in an axial direction toward the opposite end of the shell. Since this force is being reacted by the interaction of the inner part of the drumhead with the bearing edge of the shell, this all-tension-rod tightening torque results in increased tension in the drumhead, which increases its fundamental frequency, thereby raising the musical pitch of the drum. Conversely, if a loosening torque is applied to all of the tension rods, the fundamental frequency of the drumhead is decreased, thereby lowering the musical pitch of the drum.
Multiple-tension-rod tuning mechanisms employed on typical acoustic drums are useful for achieving uniform drumhead tensions. However, multiple-tension-rod tuning mechanisms also require significant effort and skill to change the overall tension of a drumhead without losing peripheral tension uniformity. The effort and skill required increases for drums having heads on both ends of the shell, and it increases further for drums used in a drum set, where the musical pitch of each drum must be adjusted with respect to that of all other drums in the drum set. Further complications can also arise because the tension rods on the resonator head ends of the drums are frequently difficult to access while the drum is set up in the drum set.
Learning and applying the skills required to properly tune a drum (i.e., achieve the desired musical pitch and timbre of the drum) can be difficult for some percussionists to master. Often, percussionists will tune a drum until its musical pitch and timbre are “good enough”, but they may only rarely achieve the truly desired pitch and optimum timbre due to the additional effort and skill required.